


Cereal

by Shestoolazytologin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Ben can cook, Cereal, Editor Ben, Engineer Rey, F/M, Fluff, I suck at tags, Idiots in Love, Meet-Cute, i don’t know what else to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shestoolazytologin/pseuds/Shestoolazytologin
Summary: They met at the cereal aisle.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 38
Kudos: 143
Collections: Thirstie Gifting Season 2019 - The Thirst Order





	Cereal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spacey_gracie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacey_gracie/gifts).

> I apparently suck at summaries.
> 
> This is for Gracie, my June Thirstie. Thank you for being such a gem ❤️
> 
> Betaed by Musickat18. Thank you for saving my life. ❤️
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr (same username) or Twitter @Reylo4President 😊

[](https://ibb.co/T1gqZ08)

Ben Solo hated grocery shopping. He hated all the people taking up space and he hated their tiny people too. They shopped as if they would starve before the shops opened again the next day. They shopped like animals in a jungle. He flinched, remembering one occasion a few months ago, when two women had fought over who was going to get the last avocado. He had passively watched them, waiting for something to happen, for one of them to cave and let the other one get it. 

He had gone and grabbed the avocado himself instead.

_Idiots_, he had thought. People were absolutely stupid.

* * *

Ben returned to the store six days later instead of seven. He usually went on Saturdays, but a prior engagement on Saturday had forced him to go on a Friday instead.

He reached for the bag of cereal, glad he had managed to get to the last one before someone else did, when a dainty hand snatched it first. He turned around ready to yell and felt his breath leave his lungs.

The first thing he noticed were her eyes. They were a bright shade of hazel he had never seen before, and he wanted to get lost in them. 

“Oh. I’m sorry!” she said, pulling her hand back. 

He shook his head, willing himself to come out of his trance. He hadn't realized he hadn't blinked since he had laid his eyes on her.

“No, it’s okay.” He felt his mouth moving and words coming out of it but didn't have a clue what he was saying.

Her smile was brilliant, all teeth and dimples, and he felt like the sun came out and the birds started singing. 

“Well, thank you,” she said, turning around, grabbing her cart and resuming her shopping, leaving him there, hand still stretched towards the shelf.

Ben started shopping on Fridays.

* * *

He saw her every Friday after that. Sometimes her cart was full, other times she would just get small things. She was always alone and she always grabbed a box of cereal. _His_ box of cereal. 

He was surprised to discover he didn't mind so much.

* * *

She started greeting him with a shy smile after two weeks - or small for her, at least - with a hi the third week, and they started talking by the fourth. 

They made small talk, exchanging opinions about the other inhabitants on the cereal shelf. She ate cereal for breakfast and dinner- which is why she bought a new box every week- and he told her he also ate cereal all the time.

He didn’t tell her, however, that he had started eating more cereal just to have a reason to go to the aisle at the store.

* * *

She didn’t tell him she had started eating cereal twice a day just so she could see him.

He was gorgeous in a way that defied conventional beauty. His features shouldn’t have worked individually, but on him, they worked perfectly. He was tall and broad, his hair curled over his ears, his nose big, his eyes as dark as space, and his lips- _God his lips- _full and plump and soft-looking, 

He told her his name was Ben. 

She told him hers was Rey.

He smiled, two huge dimples showing.

She melted on the spot.

* * *

On week six, Ben asked her out to dinner. She resisted the strong urge to squeal.

“That depends,” she said.

His brows furrowed. “On what?”

“On how willing you are to feed me. I eat a lot.”

The corners of his mouth twitched upward once, twice, until he settled on a smirk. “That’s okay. My portions are huge.”

That evening, Rey couldn’t stop cringing at the memory. 

_I eat a lot. _“God, you are so embarrassing,” she told herself for the hundredth time, her hand covering her eyes, desperate to forget that moment.

She wondered if other things about him were as big as he was.

* * *

Ben could cook- could _really _cook- and Rey was in heaven.

They talked about nothing and everything. He told her he was an editor and she told him she was an engineer. 

He told her about his parents- she might have fangirled a bit when she heard who they were- and she told him about the lack of hers. He put his bear paw of a hand on hers, caressing the back with his thumb. She had never felt warmer. Rey wondered if he also thought of kissing her randomly during the day. She thought of him and kissing him every waking moment.

He kissed her and told her he did.

Apparently, she hadn’t just thought that. She had said it out loud.

She let herself melt against him that night as he held and ravished her. She had never felt more cherished.

Taking Fridays off of work just to meet him at the cereal shelf had been the best decision of her life.

* * *

He thanked the gods he had taken Fridays off of work just to meet her.

He often thought of how lucky he was to have her- when he kissed her, or held her, or when she ran her fingers through his hair. He loved being around her, inside her, anywhere in her vicinity. 

Rey was like the sun. He wondered what she saw in him.

* * *

Rey wondered what Ben saw in her. She was a nobody from nothing and Ben was so much. 

The store became their “accidental but not really” meeting place. They ate cereal together. He started cooking for her, appalled at her ramen noodles and artificial Mac&Cheese. 

She started buying more cheap artificial foods just so she could watch him cook. His ass looked nice like that. 

Rey was on cloud nine but wary of the moment life was going to remind her that nice things weren’t meant for her. 

She hoped she could keep Ben.

* * *

Ben held on to Rey’s hand tightly as they strolled through the park. They had been dating for two months and he considered them the best two months of his life. Everything about Rey was good and bright and warm. He looked at her as she was glancing at the lake’s surface and a family of ducks- the mom being dutifully followed by her little ducklings. He knew what she was thinking. He thought about it every day.

“My parents are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner in two weeks.”, he said, his eyes trained on her expression. He didn’t miss a thing- the way she looked at him, her eyes becoming sad for a very fleeting moment before she carefully hid it away.

He didn’t miss it. He never missed a thing when it came to her so, before she could speak, he went on. “I wanted to see if you’re free. It’s gonna be just them and their best friend and my uncle- nothing fancy- so I understand if you-”

“I’d love to.” she said interrupting him in the process, giving him her most brilliant smile and he felt his heart stop.

Why did he feel like it was about to burst?

* * *

Rey’s heart was about to burst. She had never celebrated a proper Thanksgiving, always ordering takeout with Finn, until he got invited to celebrate with his girlfriend’s family. And while Rose had extended the invitation to Rey, she didn’t like feeling like she was intruding.

So instead she had always celebrated it at the animal shelter. Orphans had to stick together.

Ben inviting her had meant more than he could ever know and she had tried really hard not to start crying. So she had extended her own invitation to him- celebrate with his parents first and then go celebrate with her four-legged friends afterwards. He had smiled and agreed. 

Rey felt like the pure joy radiating off of him could make her entire world stop, and it scared her.

Getting attached, and then abandoned, scared her.

* * *

Ben had taken Rey- his beautiful, perfect Rey- home to meet his parents for Thanksgiving and they had unofficially adopted her on the spot. His uncle Luke, someone he didn’t get along with at all, had taken to her immediately- them working in the same field being an added bonus. His father’s best friend Chewie had enveloped her in a bear hug the moment he had seen her. His mother had started showing her his baby photos 0.2 seconds after they had arrived and his father… his father had been worse, much worse. He had heard her talk about her love of vintage cars, had taken her to his garage. Rey had lost her mind at the sight of his father’s legendary and one-of-a-kind Millennium Falcon. He had just handed her the keys and Rey had taken the car out for a spin.

His Rey was perfect and his family adored her.

He would have been jealous had it been anyone else but Rey deserved the world on a silver platter. He would do his best to make sure that happened.

* * *

Rey looked at Ben and wished she could put into words how much it had meant that he had taken her to meet his family. He had given her the world on a silver platter, whether he was aware of it or not. He drove them to the animal shelter, holding her hand the whole time, only letting go when they arrived. 

She greeted the people at the counter, handing them a cake and then proceeded to the back where all the dogs were. 

It was tradition.

She watched Ben surrounded by dogs, his expression one of utter joy as he turned around and asked her if they could do this more often. 

Rey pretended she didn’t feel the tears trickling down her cheeks. 

Ben had become the world to her and she wasn’t sure she could afford being abandoned by another person.

* * *

Ben saw her tears but pretended he didn’t. He wanted to spend the rest of his life making sure she never cried again.

* * *

Rey was in love with Ben and the realization terrified her.

* * *

Ben was in love with Rey and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

* * *

Rey broke up with him a week later.

* * *

Rey broke up with him. Rey broke up with him and Ben wasn’t sure where it had all gone wrong. 

_Ben, I don’t think it’s gonna work out between us. You deserve more than whatever it is we have._

_-Rey_

He called her after he read the message. She didn’t pick up. He went to her place. She didn’t open the door. There was a stack of mail and advertisements outside her door. 

It was as if she had stopped living there. 

He went to the store everyday since that day, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, trying to understand why she left. He felt like nothing made or would ever make sense anymore. 

He never saw her. He spent hours in front of the cereal shelf and never saw her.

* * *

Rey hadn’t left the house since she had ended things with Ben a week ago. With November gone, and December well into its first week, she had managed to convince herself Ben had just been a fall fling, something that wasn’t meant to last. 

Nevermind the connection between them. 

Nevermind how he had set her whole soul ablaze with every touch or kiss he left on her skin. 

She missed him, but she would rather hurt now than whenever he decided she wasn’t worth the added baggage. 

She wouldn’t have blamed him. Her baggage was quite heavy.

* * *

Ben didn’t blame her. He blamed himself for never telling her exactly how how much she meant to him. He blamed himself for always telling himself it was too soon for what he had wanted to do since that first day in front of the cereal shelf. 

But Rey was nowhere to be found. 

Until she was. 

And seeing her felt like the first drop of water after being parched for days. 

He approached her, hoping her fight or flight instinct wouldn’t kick in. 

It didn’t.

* * *

Rey saw him but didn’t bolt. She stood rooted to the spot, held in place by some sort of invisible power, her eyes trained on his. 

She felt her heart rate increase. Why was it so warm? She was going to melt a hole in the ice skating rink. 

He stopped in front of her and she wanted to reach out and brush the hair from his forehead. She wanted to hug him, and kiss him, and tell him she was sorry, that it wasn’t his fault. 

But he wasn’t hers, so she couldn’t do it. 

He opened his mouth and started speaking, and everything blurred together after that.

* * *

“I love you.” he said “I probably should have told you this sooner, as soon as I felt it, but I was scared you would think we were moving too fast. I've loved you since the first day I saw you, when you grabbed that last box of cereal. It just took me longer to realize it because I’m so dense sometimes. I love you so much, I don’t know what to do with myself. You’re a planet and I’m just the lucky and insignificant moon orbiting around you. And if you give me a chance to show you how deep and strong that love is, I swear I will make it worth your while, and you will never regret it.”

She kissed him between sobs, and tears, and laughs, letting him kiss her insecurities away. She told him she loved him, that she was scared, and that she never wanted to spend another moment without him. She told him that the past three weeks had been the worst, and breaking up with him had been like driving a dagger straight into her heart. 

He held her face with his big hands - hands she loved - and looked at her with his eyes- eyes that held a galaxy of love. 

He asked her to marry him, surrounded by a crowd of witnesses and falling snowflakes. 

She faintly realized it was December 24th.


End file.
